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Monday, May 6, 2013

Lost gold legends from the Civil War

By Ciara Gold

I'm so excited to have been invited to participate in this blog. Since this is my first post, I'll begin with a very short introduction. I write historical western romances but I also write fantasy, time-travels and sci-fi romances. Right now, I've been focusing most of my energy on my first love; historical westerns. Being a native Texan, there's just something comforting in the genre.

When I first started writing Texas Forged, my first thought
was to have the hero and his half brothers be involved with a missing
confederate gold shipment. Thus began my research into this possibility. I
stumbled upon a story that would have been great to incorporate if I could have
made the dates match up right. Alas, I abandoned the idea and went a different
direction with my bad-boy hero.

However, the story is still interesting enough to make note
of here about The Lost Legend of Keel Mountain. I don’t want to rewrite the story
as it’s told so well at the link provided, but legends of this nature always provide fodder
for story ideas.Somewhere at the base
of Keel Mountain in Alabama there could be hidden gold.

Unfortunately, the location didn’t work well with my story
line so I continued to hunt for stories of lost gold and came across another
interesting tale. Supposedly there are
buried gold ingots somewhere in the Elk-Cameron County area of Pennsylvania.A very young lieutenant in the Union Army was
given an important mission; to see to the delivery of a wagon load of gold
bullion. He was given a wagon with a false bottom, an escort of 8 soldiers and
orders to avoid the enemy as he travelled from Wheeling, West Virginia to
Washington, DC.

Somehow in the course of trying to stay hidden from enemy
eyes, he took the caravan through the very remote regions of Pennsylvania. In
Ridgeway, their reception was rather hostile. Then they headed toward St. Mary’s.
There, the lieutenant took ill. He’d been fighting bouts of fever throughout the
journey but this time, his fever caused him to blurt out the purpose of his
mission. Until this point, he was the only one in the group that knew of the
gold. Their civilian guide took over as the lieutenant was too ill. They left St.
Mary’s for Driftwood and that was the last anyone heard of the caravan until
the guide showed up a month later with a fantastical tale of the loss of every
man on the convoy and the loss of the cargo.

The guide was questioned extensively but the gold was never
found. To this day, many believe $1,500,000 in gold still remains lost in the
mountains of Pennsylvania.Read the full story here.

Again, I couldn’t make the time frame for this story work
with mine so I eventually made up my own tale of stolen loot. As horrid as the Civil War was for both sides, it has given writers a wealth of intrigue to pull from. For those of us writing historical westerns around the 1870s, it's a great way to give our heroes and heroines a background rich in angst.

During the war, the hero in Texas Forged steals from his father, a man who won't claim the relationship. Years later, he still feels guilt for the crime. Eventually, circumstances force him to make things right and he goes in search of the buried loot only to come face to face with a past he'd rather forget.

Galin Walker took the rumpled,
thirteen-year-old wanted poster and stared at an image that was both familiar
and foreign.

“Looks just like you.” Deputy
Nate Brisco rocked back and forth on his dusty boots. “Well, minus the scar on
your forehead.”

Galin studied the drawing with an
impassive face, but inside, volcanic heat rivaling the high temperatures in his
forge threatened to consume his every breath. The likeness on the worn placard captured
the stupidity and cocky confidence of youth. His hand shook ever so slightly
when he handed the paper back to Nate. “You need a pair of those new-fangled
eyeglasses the mercantile’s been advertisin’.”

The law official presented an
imposing figure with his Colt strapped low on his hip and his brass badge
polished to a shine. Galin swiped his forehead with a damp rag and waited for the
man to pull out his cuffs.

“Found it wedged against the side
of the new saloon. A few years old but…”

Was it Galin’s imagination, or
had the smithy grown hotter? He tugged at the collar of his chambray shirt and
licked the salty moisture from his lips. “But?”

Nate shook his head and tapped
the thick paper. “Man on the poster has your last name. Know anything about
him? Relative perhaps?”

He peered at the rumpled sheet,
fear rushing through his veins like a river during a flood. “Lots of folks own
that handle.” Why the hell was that document surfacing now?

“True.” Nate spit a wad of
tobacco onto the dirt floor and used the toe of his worn boot to cover the
evidence of his bad habit. “Didn’t I hear you say you were from Alabama?”

“Along with about a fourth of the
town’s population, I reckon.” Would the law official buy that nonchalant bullshit?

“I sincerely doubt many
Alabamians found their way here. In fact, I only know of one ornery cuss, and
that’s you. Regardless, the face sure bears a resemblance to your ugly mug.”

The knot around
Galin’s intestines tightened. “If you think I’m the person they’re lookin’ for,
just arrest me and get it done with.” Maybe it was time to stop looking over
his shoulder.

Ciara--I do appreciate the chatty manner you tell about a topic. Working in your novel is good--like others we have on here, this really works well. Me? I have not mastered it, but I'm working on it! And I like your banner.

Great excerpt, Ciara. You're right, the 1870's are an opportunity to incorporate tales from the Civil War and I'm doing the same thing for the villain in my WIP. I loved your post writing-style, too. So glad you've joined us!

Hi Ciara, So nice to meet you and welcome you to the blog. I hadn't heard about the lost gold, but can imagine there must have been hunters for the location of that much gold. I wonder if it was truly in the wagon???